Excited to hear more. I had passed on Let's go Pikachu but this looks like a return to games like XD and Coliseum.

Those had a "darker" (it's Pokemon, I know) atmosphere, if they brought that back too then it could be more interesting. This just looks too sickly sweet. At least this will tie into a Pokemon Duel event, probably.

I've been a bit apathetic about the series as of late too. The monster designs carry it for me now, and my best memories of Gen 6/7 are probably of seeing Barbaracle, Golisopod and Crabominable for the first time unspoiled.

I can see what you mean by darker because pokemon is always geared toward kids but there were more adult themes in XD and Coliseum. You're turning dark pokemon to the light, stealing back pokemon from people. In Coliseum, you're basically a badass one-man wrecking crew wielding generally way overpowered pokemon while riding around on your crazy motorcycle.

I've always been into pokemon to just explore the world and catch new creatures not so much for the story because pokemon recycles the plot more or less every generation. I wouldn't count this game out of a few adult themes though. I feel like Alola was meant to feel like one big vacation and Lets Go was a money grab and an attempt to bring the youth into the pokemon world. I feel like now they can run with it and make something actually fun.

Definitely gonna start with Sobble. You already know water lizard translates to water dragon on the third evolution. Dragon collector just like my boy lance since day 1.